1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the invention relate generally to pattern-recognition processors and, more specifically, in certain embodiments, to management of data and results in pattern-recognition processors.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the field of computing, pattern recognition tasks are increasingly challenging. Ever larger volumes of data are transmitted between computers, and the number of patterns that users wish to identify is increasing. For example, spam or malware are often detected by searching for patterns in a data stream, e.g., particular phrases or pieces of code. The number of patterns increases with the variety of spam and malware, as new patterns may be implemented to search for new variants. Searching a data stream for each of these patterns can form a computing bottleneck. Often, as the data stream is received, it is searched for each pattern, one at a time. The delay before the system is ready to search the next portion of the data stream increases with the number of patterns. Thus, pattern recognition may slow the receipt of data.
A device performing the pattern recognition function may receive one or more data streams over a packet based network, such as Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP). However, packets of a data stream received over such a network may be mixed or “multiplexed” with other packets from other data streams. Additionally, the packets may not be received in order. Further, after processing the packets of the data streams, any results output by the device may not be identified with each data stream. In some cases, hundreds of data streams may be received and processed by the device. Identifying and tracking each data stream may use a significant amount of resources and may impact processing throughput and latency of the device.